After taking over as CEO of Xbox following the surprise departures of former heads Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond two weeks ago, new leader Asha Sharma has publicly revealed the codename of the next-generation Xbox.
In an X post, Sharma shared she’d met with Team Xbox this morning to discuss Project Helix, the codename for the next-generation Xbox. According to Sharma, Project Helix “will lead in performance and play your Xbox and PC games” as part of her promised commitment to “the return of Xbox.” Sharma doesn’t provide any more details other than sharing the Project Helix logo, but confirms she’ll be attending the Game Developers Conference (GDC) next week to discuss the upcoming console with partners and developers.
Despite enduring a rocky console generation, we’ve known that Xbox was committed to releasing a successor to the Xbox Series X/S dating back to 2024, when former Xbox head Phil Spencer told employees the company had no plan to stop making Xbox consoles. Xbox also announced last June that AMD will power its next-generation consoles as part of a multi-year partnership with the tech giant.
Today’s news comes after Xbox’s colossal leadership shake-up that saw Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer retire and Xbox president Sarah Bond resign on the same day. Asha Sharma, previously the president of Microsoft’s CoreAI, was appointed to Spencer’s former position, with long-time Xbox executive Matt Booty promoted to Chief Content Officer to work alongside her.
Although Sharma has no prior experience working in video games, she stated in an email to employees that she intends to “understand what makes this work and protect it.” She has also responded to fears of AI integration in future Xbox games due to her former position by saying, “Games are and always will be art, crafted by humans, and created with the most innovative technology provided by us.”
For more on Xbox, you can check out these stories for its 2026 slate of games, such as Halo: Campaign Evolved, Playground Games’ Forza Horizon 6 and Fable, and Double Fine’s Kiln. Subscribers can read our latest magazine preview for Gears of War: E-Day.
